Singing - update letter June 2011

I just sent out an update letter--if you want it, but didn't get it, please email me at gillian.ferwerda at gmail.com 

A little while ago, I was in Honduras, singing:

Tu luz mi vida alumbro (your light illuminated my life)

Mi gozo restauro (my joy you restored)

Tu gracia como lluvia cayó (your grace like rain fell)

Mi desierto recubrió (my desert you recovered)

//Tu cambiaste mi lamento en alabanza (you changed my lament into praise)

Mi tristeza en gozo, Señor// (my sadness/grief into joy, Lord)

Right now I’m feeling a little like the desert. Yet, there is that promise, and as the Lord says, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Is. 46:10).

WHERE I’VE BEEN: On May 26^th, I celebrated 1 year of being in Honduras—teaching and learning, giving and growing. I have received so much from God and from the Hondurans. I have such joy in Honduras—I sang with joy: Tu gracia como lluvia cayó (your grace like rain fell).

WHERE I’M GOING: And I am called back there. I know that—there is such joy there for me, it can only come from God. When I return, I will be transitioning San Pedro Sula to a ministry working with a government orphanage for girls ages 12-18. These girls—Maria, Gabriela, Paula—come from backgrounds of gangs, prostitution, exploitation, abuse, drug addiction. They are taken from their homes or the streets and put in this mix of a juvenile delinquent center and orphanage.

When I visited, the heat was horrible, the buildings were cramped and decrepit, but what was most stifling was the lack of hope. No hope for the day: the girls were so desperate for something to interrupt their routine of practically nothingness. Little hope for the next day: with the help of the gangs, the girls are always trying to escape (we saw clumps of human hair in the barbed wire where the girls have attempted to get out). The week before I visited, a girl had managed to escape; she was found murdered a few days later... the gangs want to keep the girls quiet. Little hope for the future: without job training, what else do the girls know?

How I wish I could share with you what God has laid on my heart concerning these girls! Christ is the living Hope. It sounds so cliché, but...its real there. And a real need for the girls to see Christ, to have the touch of Christ. God doesn’t need me to do His work there—but He is good enough to allow me to participate in what He is doing. God is opening the doors for me to work with, just starting small to do some devotions and a few activities. We’ll see what God does from there.

I know I will stand back and with the girls sing:

//Tu cambiaste mi lamento en alabanza (you changed my lament into praise)

Mi tristeza en gozo, Señor// (my sadness/grief into joy, Lord)

WHERE I’M AT RIGHT NOW: However, right now I am in the US for a longer-than-expected period of time. I have been having gastro-intestinal issues, which has resulted in health problems. I am here in the US to get that figured out and to heal. I have some answers, and more questions. But taking steps toward health. When will I be able to return to Honduras? I don’t know.

I want so badly to be back, but I know I need to have health and energy to minister to these girls. God is using this time to teach me, prepare me, to help me trust in his timing, to help me understand more deeply that it is His ministry and not mine. Apart from Him, I can do nothing. And in a different way, it is also a time where He is pouring out His grace on me, in unexpected ways.

But I look forward to the day when I’m back in health, back in Honduras and will BLOOM! And sing: Mi desierto recubrió (my desert you recovered)

For the Lord’s purposes will stand, and He is a God who has brought Christ back to life, who changes the ashes into beauty, laments into praise, who gives hope to the hopeless, and strength to the weak. Someday, you, I, the girls in Honduras, and people from all over will sing together in front of the throne about the great redemption of our Triune God.

I will be back with Women At Risk, International if anyone is interested in giving toward this work. http://graebird-support.blogspot.com/2011/06/finances-for-2011.html

Persevering in His grace, held in His love, and wishing you all His grace and peace,

Gillian